In the healthcare sector, many devices and systems are being developed that allow a patient to carry out monitoring of various conditions in their home or work environment or while on the move, without requiring the direct supervision of a healthcare professional.
In these systems, the patient can be provided with a monitoring device, such as a blood sugar meter, a blood INR meter, a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure meter, and so on, that the patient uses to take regular or frequent measurements of some physiological parameter(s). The monitoring device can then provide the results of the measurement to a computer terminal in the patient's home, and the computer terminal can forward the results to a remote station (such as a healthcare professional's computer terminal), where the results can be collated and reviewed by a healthcare professional. The healthcare professional can contact the patient if the results are unsatisfactory or if the patient needs to change their treatment regimen.
However, this type of system is only effective if the patient uses the monitoring device at the required intervals.
A similar problem exists with home medicament dispensing devices that regularly or frequently dispense a medicament to a patient. The medication therapies can only be effective if the patient takes their medicament at the appropriate time.
Therefore, there is a need for a medical device having a reminder function that motivates the patient or user to use the medical device at the appropriate time.